Eight months after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the remaining episodes of Chicago Fire, our favorites firefighters and paramedics at Firehouse 51 are back in action, and they haven’t missed a beat. The show’s hiatus didn’t stop it from showing the impacts of the pandemic in the world of NBC’s hit drama series: significantly less people working in the Firehouse, and characters acknowledging that the pandemic has affected a lot of the city and how it has affected their jobs.

The episode began with Joe Cruz literally running into work, and getting a quick temperature check before running inside. Chief Boden is in the middle of introducing the newest paramedic to the squad when Joe bursts into his office, apologizing for his tardiness because he hit a pot-hole on the way in. The new paramedic is introduced as Gianna Mackey (played by Adriyan Rae), who has known Joe all of her life.

Kelly Severide tells Matt Casey and Sylvie Brett that his girlfriend Stella Kidd’s Girl’s on Fire program was temporarily shut down due to the pandemic and that most of the office workers are working from home, leaving only the firefighters and paramedics inside. Brett then says that Emily Foster’s new job at Northwestern is also insane because of the pandemic. This was the show’s way of writing off the character after two seasons.

The Firehouse’s siren goes off, calling on Ambulance 61 to a call, giving Mackey and Brett their first call as new partners. The call is a possible overdose, and the victim’s brother appears and puts a gun to their heads, threatening violence if they try to take him to the hospital. In a huge act of bravery, Brett gets the victim on a stretcher and gets him into the ambulance, with the gunman chasing after them, and not a shot fired.

After returning back to the Firehouse, Joe immediately bombards Mackey with questions about her first call being so tense and insane. She calms him down nicely and goes into the kitchen to start making lunch for everyone, even giving a small smile to firefighter candidate Blake Gallo. I’m guessing this will be the first romance suspicion of the season, but I’m waiting for the day that Casey and Sylvie end up together.

Chief Boden informs Severide that Squad 3 are going to be testing new equipment on a Saturday, so they all have to come in. Stella then goes on a rant to her boyfriend about having her program shut down, and that she doesn’t want the young women that she’s inspired to lose interest in possibly being firefighters.

We now get our C plot of the episode, with my favorite characters Christopher Herrmann and “Mouch” McHolland. Herrmann learned about a guy who wrote a poem to a “hidden treasure” that tricked people into going out into nature, and he wants to do the same for Molly’s Patio, a new addition to Molly’s Bar, to lure people in for business. I’m sure they want to make sure that the bar is as socially distant as possible for when the characters go out for a drink after work. Candidate Darren Ritter overhears this and wants to help out with the poem. It’s Herrmann’s latest cash grab, and if history should repeat itself, it’ll most likely blow up in his face.

Boden informs his paramedics that the man who overdosed died in the hospital, causing Sylvie and Gianna to become nervous about the brother who pulled a gun on them while on the scene. Chicago P.D.’s Kim Burgess stops by to take a statement from them and informs them that the brother, Joe Halleck, has a long record of assault, robbery, and drug charges. The paramedics decide to stay on active duty but will be cautious if they see him.

After Gallo formally introduces himself to Gianna, Cruz pulls him aside and tells him to back off.

There’s a ray of sunshine in this episode, as Stella gets the all-clear to continue her Girls on Fire program, as long as it sticks to COVID regulations.

Mouch, Herrmann, and Ritter then bury the special Molly’s Coupon, which is free drinks for life. As I predicted earlier, they bury it outside the firehouse, which I’m sure will be extremely easy to find for anyone. I love the little plans that Herrmann gets himself into throughout the series. They then start writing the poem at the new Molly’s spot, and Ritter is shown to be incredibly helpful in poetry writing. As someone who also watches P.D. and Med, there isn’t a whole lot of lightheartedness in those shows, but Fire gives that in the form of Herrmann and Mouch. It used to be Cruz and Otis, but sadly, Otis’ character was killed off last season.

Everyone’s shift ends, and Sylvie heads home for the night. What she doesn’t know is that we get the “creepy stalker camera angle from a car” watching her as she drives away, and as she arrives home, her apartment door is slightly ajar. Calling Casey, he quickly arrives and they quietly go inside, thinking that Halleck might have broken in. They don’t find anything, and Casey says that he is staying the night on the couch just to make sure everything’s okay. They play “Head’s Up” together, and they are on the accent category, and Matt does a “terrible” Australian accent. I think this might be the fourth or fifth Australian joke they’ve made to Casey, since the actor who plays him (Jesse Spencer) is Australian in real life. The two laugh as they head off to bed. This little flirtmance BETTER turn into something real, come on, the fanbase wants it!

The next morning, Stella and Severide notice that Casey went to Sylvie’s, and they get suspicions that they might have been hooking up.

Herrmann and Mouch are doing a local TV ad for the Molly’s treasure hunt when the Firehouse is called to action. They arrive to the scene, which is a burning photography studio with dozens trapped inside. It should be noted that all paramedics and firemen standing outside were masked up. Sylvie gives advice to Gianna on helping victims as they get to work and wait for additional ambulances to help. Inside the building, Stella sees a couple of people run in the wrong direction to safety, and she runs after them. An explosion goes off in the building, trapping Severide and knocking his mask off. Stella knocks over a set statue in the studio and breaks a wall down to get to where Severide is. She gets his oxygen back on his face and frees him, and the two make it out of the building, while also saving one last victim before safely making it out.

Back in the Firehouse, Boden brings Stella into his office and shows her a picture of Engine 21, an 1872 squad of all-Black firefighters in Chicago. This is a real-life squad that has greatly impacted Chicago’s Fire Department. Boden says that there aren’t women or people of color involved in the CFD, and he wants her to take a lieutenant test when it is next offered. I LOVE this for Stella: her character development has been phenomenal over the last several seasons, and she’s grown to be a smart, and influential part of the series.

As said in the past, someone digs up the free drink coupon mere hours after the word was put out. As usual, one of Herrmann’s plans falls short, and now he has to give a guy free drinks forever.

Severide encourages Stella to take the lieutenant test, and that he is going to help her out to prepare for it.

Gallo, while getting the evil eye from Cruz, tries to avoid asking out Gianna. Gianna then asks herself out, pretending to be Gallo, giving him a wink as Ambulance 61 is called upon. As they being their drive, Joe Halleck drives next to them and tries to shoot them! The episode ends with both Halleck, and Ambulance 61 crashing off the side of the highway, and landing with a crash to the ground.

Overall, I would say this was a solid season premiere! It was great to see all of these characters, as well as get some new ones, along with a great cliffhanger to end the hour. The (hopeful) resolution will be solved in next week’s episode!

Are you happy to see Firehouse 51 back in action?